1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a webbing retractor used in a seatbelt system for protecting an occupant to prevent an occupant-restraining webbing from being unwound in an emergency situation of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The webbing retractor, applied to the seatbelt system for protecting the occupant of the vehicle to wind the end portion of the occupant restraining webbing, is constructed so as to wind the webbing by a biasing force and store it therein.
Among such webbing retractors, in a webbing retractor provided with an automatic locking mechanism for automatically stopping an additional unwinding of the webbing after the occupant wears the webbing, so-called Automatic Locking Retractor (ALR), the occupant is restrained so securely by the webbing, so that is difficult for him to make comfort changing movements while seated in such restrained position.
Also, in a webbing retractor provided with an emergency locking mechanism for stopping the unwinding of the webbing when an emergency situation of the vehicle is detected by an acceleration sensor, so-called Emergency Locking Retractor (ELR), the occupant can change his attitude easily in the ordinary running situation of the vehicle but, in case that a fixture such as a child seat or the like is fixed to a vehicle seat of the vehicle by the webbing, it is moved sometimes. That is to say, the webbing is unwound unnecessarily from the webbing retractor by vibrations or the like caused due to a low acceleration range where the acceleration sensor is not worked or the movement of the child received in the child seat, so that the child seat is moved on the vehicle seat. In addition, the ELR provided with a manual locking mechanism for manually locking the emergency locking mechanism to stop the webbing unwinding rotation of the takeup shaft at need has been proposed in this field. However, such a manual locking mechanism is generally mounted on the webbing retractor as an optional member and, therefore, an operation lever for the manual locking mechanism must be arranged in a confined space where the lever is difficult to be operated, for example, under the seat, whereby the operation of the lever is complicated. Also, in order to remote-control the manual locking mechanism such a connecting means as a wire must be arranged in the vehicle body.